Twenty years ago underbelly original and gangland survivor “Fat Tony” Mokbel skipped bail and secretly sailed out of Geraldton to begin life on the run in Greece.
On Friday, a Melbourne court declared him a free man and Mokbel’s thoughts turned to heading overseas again — legally this time — as long as his preferred destination country welcomes serious, convicted drug dealers.
“That would be great, to get on a nice plane,” the 60-year-old said, staring at the sky, after his last drug trafficking charge was withdrawn by prosecutors.
“I used to always dream of getting on a plane when I was in jail.”
After nearly two decades in custody since his famous arrest in 2007 at an Athens cafe after he fled to Greece on a private yacht, and almost a year on bail, Mokbel said freedom was “beautiful”.
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“It feels really nice, and life goes on now,” Mokbel told a media pack on the steps of the Supreme Court in Melbourne.
Mokbel’s great escape to Greece — via Western Australia — is part of underworld folklore.
It was 2006, and 40-year-old Mokbel was just about to face serious cocaine trafficking charges and a long stretch in the Big House.
But Fat Tony didn’t plan to hang around and face the music.
The gangland boss skipped bail and initially went to extreme lengths to lay low in Victoria, while he hatched a plan to bolt for freedom.
He hid out for eight months, mainly in a mate’s place at Bonnie Doon, the tiny, sleepy Victorian town made famous as the Kerrigans’ daggy holiday spot in iconic movie, The Castle.
While he sampled the “serenity” it was probably too risky to catch any carp in Lake Eildon as his mind ticked over about a foolproof getaway strategy.
With a little help from his associates, Mokbel hired a team of Greek sailors and bought a 17m motor yacht from a Sydney businessman for about $350,000.
The yacht, called The Edwena, was sailed to Newcastle and then towed across land to Fremantle.
For six days the wide-load truck moved slowly through NSW, South Australia and Western Australia, only travelling in daylight and accompanied by pilot cars front and back.
When it arrived in Perth, The Edwena — an old English term derived from Eadwine which means “rich friend” — was sailed to the Customs Jetty at the Fremantle Sailing Club.
Not that they bothered keeping a low profile.
Within days the Greek crew went on a spending spree around Fremantle, buying generators, an auto-pilot, sails, a desalination unit, fuel containers and a Zodiac craft.
They also bought a fancy toilet which they fitted into the bow, just for Fat Tony’s use.
All up it’s estimated they spent $70,000 in a matter of days, fitting out The Edwena for the 11,700km journey ahead.
The next part of the plan was how to smuggle Mokbel — by now Australia’s most wanted fugitive with a $1 million reward on his head — from Victoria to Western Australia.
Again associates came to the party, hiring two vehicles from Budget and setting off across the country on a one-way trip with their “rich friend” as their precious cargo.
Once in the west, police believe Mokbel was loaded on to the yacht along the WA coast somewhere between Perth and Geraldton, possibly by the Zodiac craft.
With their passenger aboard, The Edwena then set sail from Geraldton into the vast Indian Ocean, heading to the Maldives then to Greek waters via the Suez Canal.
He tasted freedom — but not for long.
After arriving in Greece in time for Christmas 2006, Mokbel was caught by Greek police in an Athens seaside restaurant just over five months later, on June 5, 2007.
He was wearing an ill-fitting wig, inset, and using an alias, however, confirmed his true identity to Greek officers who had staged a fake immigration check at the cafe at the behest of Australian police.
Extradition took almost another year and $450,000 of taxpayers money but Mokbel returned to Australia in May 2008 and began serving a 12-year jail sentence over the cocaine importation charge from 2000.
His chances of seeing freedom before his 60th birthday seemed bleak when he was sentenced to a total term of 30 years in jail in 2012, after pleading guilty to three cases relating to serious drug-related offences.
However, he found a lifeline of sorts with the revelation that his long-time lawyer Nicola Gobbo had also been a police informant against him.
Mokbel argued that Ms Gobbo’s actions compromised his convictions and kicked off a decade-long legal battle that ultimately dismantled his 30-year sentence.
In October last year, the Court of Appeal delivered a split decision on drug trafficking and importation convictions in three of his separate cases — known as Orbital, Magnum and Quills.
The court quashed his convictions on the Orbital and Quills cases but upheld his conviction on the Magnum case.
The Quills case was tossed out of court but the Orbital case was sent back to the Director of Public Prosecutions to make a determination on whether to conduct a retrial.
In November, Mokbel was re-sentenced to 13 years, seven months and 15 days on the Magnum case, recognised as time already served.
The Magnum case revolved around his drug empire, known as The Company, which conducted a large-scale methylamphetamine manufacturing and distribution in 2006 and 2007 after Mokbel had fled overseas and was living in Greece.
His remaining charge, known as the Orbital brief, related to alleged incitement to import 100kg of MDMA into Australia in 2005.
But on Friday, prosecutor David Glynn announced the Director of Public Prosecution’s decision not to order Mokbel face a fresh trial on his final charge.
And his bail was released. Mokbel had been free on bail since April 2025 awaiting the result of his appeal.
The decision not to proceed with the Orbital charge had been made after “careful consideration” of Mokbel’s conviction prospects, public interest in another trial, time spent behind bars, his age and health, the DPP said.
This included the fact there were no drugs imported in the case, likely ongoing delays to any retrial and the age of the alleged offending.
Born in Kuwait in 1965 to Lebanese parents, Mokbel migrated to Australia at age eight and grew up in poverty in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Though he started out working at his brother’s pizza shop as a teenager, within just six years he rose to head a multimillion-dollar drug empire.
This ascent into the criminal elite effectively sparked the “underbelly” era of Melbourne’s gangland conflict.
Mokbel declined to comment on whether he would seek compensation from the State of Victoria, as he left court a free man on Friday.
But he did say his “biggest mistake in life” was going to jail.
“I don’t recommend it for no one,” Mokbel said.
Asked whether he regretted drug trafficking, “Fat Tony” replied: “I don’t regret anything”.
As for The Edwena, it was seized in Greece by Australian Customs and later sold to an undisclosed buyer.
But last month, The Herald Sun said The Edwena, which is now sailing under the name Despina, had recently been put to use in a documentary depicting Greek chef Giannis Apostolakis and his friends’ mission to sail around the world.
Two men convicted of helping Mokbel flee to Greece in 2006 ended up in jail despite taking their fight all the way to the High Court. George Elias and Chaffic Issa pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and were sentenced to eight years.
